Cooper UX Boot Camp Aims to Amplify Fair Trade through Digital Tools

Our partnership with Cooper to expand Fair Trade

The power of Fair Trade is that the model leverages the market to improve the lives of people around the world. Tradtionally businesses have engaged in commerce and NGOs have made societal improvement their mission, but Fair Trade enables businesses to actively address human & environmental exploitation. As globalization has inextricably tied the health of people, businesss, and environment, there is an ever-increasing need for businesses to ensure long-term supply chain viability by supporting and investing in the people and environment where their products are sourced.

Our work across multiple industries consisting of varying global supply chains has resulted in the need for digital tools that enable businesses to easily and efficiently increase the number of Fair Trade Certified items that they bring to market. Given the complexity of this space and our limited resources as a non-profit, we were thrilled when Cooper volunteered their expertise to help us out. Cooper is a design & strategy firm in San Francisco that has designed everything from medical devices to consumer products to sophisticated business tools. Their wealth of experience across a wide range of industries has been invaluable to Fair Trade USA as we've discussed how to bring the Fair Trade model to scale.

At the end of March, Cooper will be bringing together a group of very talented designers & developers to collaborate on creating digital tools for Fair Trade USA at their quarterly Boot Camp. During this intensive 4-day session, attendees will be exploring the Fair Trade ecosystem, identifying key participants in Fair Trade supply chains, and creating personas & scenarios to determine what tools will best serve businesses who want to make Fair Trade an integral part of their supply chain. At the same time, attendees will be learning valuable skills & approaches to interaction design that they will then be able to take back to further their careers.

We are extremely excited to have Cooper and the Boot Camp attendees working with us to help increase our impact to farmers & workers around the world. If you are interested in attending, there are only a couple spots left in the Boot Camp, so register today! And stay tuned over the course of the coming months as this work manifests itself in the form of digital tools that will bring more businesses into the Fair Trade system and therefore improve the lives of more people around the world.

Watch this short video to learn more about Cooper's UX Boot Camp experience: